Stanislavski’s Rehearsal Processes Re-Viewed

Abstract

A Stanislavski Symposium was held in Stockholm in 1986, where some of the last surviving actors and directors who had been trained by Stanislavski himself discussed and worked ‘on the floor’ with over 300 Swedish actors and directors from all over the country. My paper is concerned with re-viewing the documentation of this Symposium, mostly as presented in a report, which I co-authored whilst a PhD candidate at the University of Stockholm. Further documentation of this embodied practice is available at the Swedish Theatre Museum and the Archive for Sound and Moving Images in Stockholm, where actors from Stanislavski’s Moscow Arts Theatre spoke about and demonstrated the rehearsal methods they had experienced with him. The use of anecdotal evidence from actors who actually shared the rehearsal room with Stanislavski has the potential to modify our perceptions of what might have been involved in Stanislavski’s processes – processes which have hitherto been disseminated only indirectly, particularly in North America. The implications of this material will lead to a new understanding of Stanislavski’s rehearsal processes and acting methodology, which is now emerging from Russian sources.